1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power/manual lens barrel, at least one movable lens group of which moves along an optical axis by a motor or by manually rotating a manual operating ring to perform a focusing operation or a zooming operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an interchangeable lens of an SLR camera system, a rotary input shaft (AF rotary shaft) which is supported to be freely rotatable on the axis thereof is rotated by a motor provided in the camera body to move a focusing lens group (optical element) along the photographing optical axis by the rotation of the rotary input shaft. The interchangeable lens has a hand-operated focusing ring (manual operating ring) which is supported to be freely rotatable so that the focusing lens group moves along the photographing optical axis to adjust the focus of the lens by rotation of the focusing ring.
This type of power/manual lens barrel must be provided with a switching mechanism which prevents rotation of the manual operating ring from being transferred to the rotary input shaft when the manual operating ring is manually rotated. In addition, some kind of switching operation must be performed to make the switching mechanism operate.
A power zoom lens in which a zooming operation can be performed by motor or rotation of a hand-operated zoom ring (manual operating ring) must be provided with a similar switching mechanism, and also a similar switching operation must be performed to make the switching mechanism operate.